Sunday, March 27, 2016

Night Bright as Day

This is the night, when
once you led our forefathers, Israel’s children from slavery in Egypt and made
them pass dry-shod through the Red Sea.

So
sang our deacon a short while ago in the stirring words of the ancient Easter
Proclamation, commonly called the Exsultet,
its opening word in the Latin original. The famous 20th-century
American monk Thomas Merton once called the Exsultet
"the key to the whole business.” The year it fell to him, as a deacon, to
sing it, he wrote, “I am going to sing the whole of theology. It is marvelous.”
[April 6,
1947, & April 15, 1949]

The
Exsultet brings us back to the heart
of the ancient Passover story, which we recall tonight with this Vigil, just as
the Jewish People have for so many centuries celebrated the Passover night’s
annual return each spring. In the Book of Exodus we are told: This was a night of vigil for the Lord, as
he led them out of the land of Egypt; so on this same night all the Israelites
must keep a vigil for the Lord throughout their generations [Exodus 12:42]. That they have done, and so must we on
this our annual Christian Passover night. On this night, when once God
led Israel from slavery and brought them safely through the waters of the Red
Sea, we too tonight follow the pillar of fire, our own Easter Candle marked
with 5 grains of incense to signify the holy and glorious wounds of Christ’s
passion, to relive that night when Christ
broke the prison-bars of death and rose victorious from the underworld.

Both
in its antiquity and in its solemnity, the Exsultet
testifies to the specialness of this Passover night, when once God led our forefathers, Israel’s children, from
slavery in Egypt and made them pass dry-shod through the Red Sea –
fulfilled for all and forever in thisnight when Christ broke the prison-bars of death and rose victorious
from the underworld.

In
the centuries-old ritual for the Passover seder, it is said that “in every
generation” every person should view him or herself as having personally come
out of Egypt. In other words, Passover isn’t just some historical anniversary.
It is something that happens in the lives of God’s People here and now. And so
it is for us on this Passover feast of the Church, this Easter night. For, as
the same Exsultet tells us, this is the night that even now,
throughout the world, sets Christian believers apart from worldly vices and
from the gloom of sin, leading them to grace and joining them to his holy ones.

In
times past, the faithful of Rome assembled at nightfall at the Basilica of St.
John in the Lateran, the Mother Church of both the City and the world, for an
all-night vigil. Meanwhile, next-door in the Baptistery the Church’s newest
members, solemnly renouncing Satan and all his works, passed through the saving
waters of baptism - an experience meant to be every bit as transformative for
them as passing through the Red Sea was for the Israelites. The Exsultet expresses how they
undoubtedly would have experienced their emergence from that Baptistery in the
dawning light of Easter morning: The
night shall be as bright as day, dazzling is the night for me, and full of
gladness.

And
so it must be for all of us - whether we are being baptized or confirmed
tonight or were baptized and confirmed many decades ago. As at a Passover seder,
so on this most holy Easter night, we must each of us personally experience
coming out of Egypt. We must each of us personally experience Christ
breaking the prison-bars of death and rising victorious from the underworld. And
then, because of that, we must each of us personally solemnly renounce
Satan and all his works. Then, indeed, this night
shall be as bright as day, dazzling and full of gladness.

And
so, tonight, having heard again the ancient Passover story - its full meaning
now unlocked for us by Jesus’ triumph over death - the Church simply cannot
contain her joy. Sadly silent these past two days, the bells have now been rung
again with all the clamor they can muster.

As
many of you know, the ringing of the bells has always been my favorite part of
the Easter Vigil – in fact, the part I most look forward to each year, a moment
of sheer joy to be remembered all year long, and beyond.

I’ll
talk more about the bells tomorrow morning. Tonight, however, I want to look
back at the strange way we began this Vigil, walking in the dark behind the
light of the Easter Candle. The Exsultet sings
eloquently in praise of that Easter Candle - this pillar, which glowing fire ignites for God’s honor, a fire into
many flames divided, yet never dimmed by sharing of its light, for its fed by
melting wax drawn out by mother bees to build a torch so precious. … Therefore, O Lord, we pray you that this
candle, hallowed to the honor of your name, may persevere undimmed, to overcome
the darkness of this night.

Now
a candle – however tall – is still just a candle. The night outside is still
dark, despite all our efforts to the contrary. Life is like that. We go through
life more or less in the dark, sometimes distracted by the scenery that surrounds
us, sometimes stumbling dangerously, but hopefully staying on - or finding our
way back - to the forward road. And we’re going to be better at staying on or
finding our way back to that road if we all stick together, like our little
procession tonight, following the way led by that single candle - relying on
one another and supporting one another in the living community of the Church, this
community created by that candle’s glowing
fire ignited for the honor of God. Just as God once led his Chosen People
through the threatening sea and the frightening desert by the light of a pillar
of fire, so he continues today to lead his Church through the dangerous
darkness of our world by the amazing brightness of the Risen Christ.

So no wonder we ring those bells
tonight. How else will the world hear this wonderful story? And hear it the
world must, for everyone’s sake!

Having huddled together in the dark and
followed the light into this Church, our challenge now is to spread the news,
with the assurance of the very first ones to hear the news.

“Why do you seek the
living among the dead,”
the angels asked the terrified women that first Easter morning. The Gospel
writers tell us that the women’s purpose in visiting the tomb was to honor
Jesus’ body with spices. Whatever they were expecting, it was a dead man
whose tomb they came to visit. But, instead of a corpse, they found something
surprising and unexpected.

The simple act of the women’s going to
the tomb, Pope Francis has said, “has now turned into … a truly life-changing
event. Nothing remains as it was before, not only in the lives of those women,
but also in our own lives and in the history of [hu]mankind. … Our daily
problems and worries can wrap us up in ourselves, in sadness and bitterness...
and that is where death is. That is not the place to look for the One who is
alive!”

And so Pope Francis challenges us: “Let
the risen Jesus enter your life, welcome him as a friend, with trust: he is
life! If up till now you have kept him at a distance, step forward. He will
receive you with open arms. If you have been indifferent, take a risk: you
won’t be disappointed. If following him seems difficult, don’t be afraid, trust
him, be confident that he is close to you, he is with you and he will give you
the peace you are looking for and the strength to live as he would have you do.”
[Easter
Vigil 2013]

The women, we are told, returned from the tomb and announced all
these things to the eleven and to all the others.

About Me

Rev. Ronald Franco, CSP, is a member of the Missionary Society of Saint Paul the Apostle (The Paulist Fathers) and Vice-Postulator for the Canonization Cause of Paulist Founder, Isaac Hecker. He is Pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish, Knoxville, TN,